Part 4 - The Buddha’s arrival and the first sermon

The Buddha attained his salvation at Uruvela on the bank of the river Nirañjana and rested there for seven days to sink the knowledge that he attained during his meditation. Now he became the Sambuddha. Now he thought to preach his knowledge among some suitable people who can grasp his doctrine. Various names came to his mind. He thought of two learned sages named Ālāra Kālāma, Uddaka Rāmaputta exposed to high metaphysical culture. But both of them died. The Buddha had five Brāhmaṇa companions named Kaundinya, Vappa, Bhadriya, Mahānāma and Aśvajit during his self-mortification before he attained the sambodhi. They deserted him and came to Kāśī. He decided to preach them his doctrine. By his divine knowledge he came to know about that they were staying at Sārnāth.

In the pre-Buddhist age Kāśī already attained the fame of a reputed seat of Brahmanical learning and chose to come to Kāśī. So he started for Benaras and eventually reached deer park Isipatana. It becomes clear that the Buddha did not want to preach his privileged knowledge to a layman, because the latter cannot comprehend it. So his choice was an educated recipient of his supreme knowledge. His choice was his five early companions staying at Sārnāth. So he chose Sārnāth as the first place to preach the doctrines of Buddhism or Sārnāth became the first place to set the wheel of Buddhism rolling.^[1] But it was not an easy venture for the Buddha to preach his message because the sages were less than willing to accept it. They believed in extreme torture of self for attaining salvation and disliked the Buddha’s moderate ways and considered it a deviation. Therefore after long explanation and persuasion he could win the confidence of the sages. Their acceptance created a small Buddhist order for the first time. Significance of this event made Sārnāth so important in Buddhism and conferred a central place to Sārnāth. Besides, through the preaching of dharma to these five monks the Buddha laid down the foundation of the Buddhist order.